Milan were incredibly stupid to sell him last season, he's leagues better than Montolivo and what other jokers start in midfield for them. Mihajlovic is doing better than his predecessors but they still can't control games, Bacca alone keeps them in contention for Europe next season.

It's amazing how they sold both Saponara and El Shaarawy within 6 months of eachother. Their transfer policy is so random. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. There's no discernible pattern.

It's been like that ever since they fired their chief scout whose name I've forgotten couple years back. Apparently Galliani thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the guy who scouted the likes of Thiago Silva or Kaka, now it seems like he's doing the scouting himself.

I wish we brought Bacca here, he's underrated.

5 days later
Klaus wrote:

It's amazing how they sold both Saponara and El Shaarawy within 6 months of eachother. Their transfer policy is so random. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. There's no discernible pattern.

he's back.

Yeah, there's clearly no one out there to get better than Ox.

I love that bloke.

I like Spalletti's setup of playing a 4-3-3 with three wingers and no striker. All of Salah, Perotti and El Shaarawy have very good pace and interchange positions fluidly. Not an easy formation to play but with wide forwards who score enough like Salah or El Shaarawy it can be pulled off.

jones wrote:

I like Spalletti's setup of playing a 4-3-3 with three wingers and no striker. All of Salah, Perotti and El Shaarawy have very good pace and interchange positions fluidly. Not an easy formation to play but with wide forwards who score enough like Salah or El Shaarawy it can be pulled off.

he must've changed it after that epic miss and epic Maicon reaction!

Even the Palermo defenders were confused.

I've little love for Dzeko, peaked at around 23 and ruined his subsequent career by going to City. Got a bit too bigheaded and selfish there too, far cry from the humble bloke he was at Wolfsburg.

6 days later

We've torn into them already on this page, but... Milan. 😆

El Shaarawy with another goal and assist as Roma trashed Fiorentina tonight. 5 goals and 2 assists in his first 7 games for the club now. Roma will be laughing all their way to the bank in a few months when they pay those €13 million to make the transfer permanent. They got the biggest Italian forward talent of his generation for the kind of money you spend on bang average fullbacks to flesh out the squad.

Roma is flying having won 7 straight league games with a total score of 25-6

Prove how bad Rudi Garcia was.

Really weird Monaco refuse to use El Shaarawy. All credit to Spalletti really, underrated manager.

Just watching Napoli- lot of good good players there. Ghoulam, Hamsik, Higuain, Insigne, jorginho would be good signings for us

Don't forget Koulibaly. Been immense this season. Best defender in Serie A alongside Bonnuci for me.

Pogba playing poorly and blaming everyone else...

Dybala looks amazing.

Berardi looked class against Milan today. He didn't score against them for once but he assisted both of Sassuolo's goals instead and completely ripped Milan's defence apart. Hit the bar once too. They must hate him so much over there. He has scored 8 and assisted 3 in his last 4 games against them now. 😆

Serie A having a little resurgence?

Seems like there's more to it this season than the last few. Partly done to Juventus' slow start but also some good players coming through across an array of teams.

Lemina scored a nice goal earlier today. Juventus' scouting is top class

11 days later

Dzeko did his best Bendtner impression vs Inter two days ago, ruined a good dozen chances and blocked Salah's potential winner from going in. After being dropped just recently you'd think that's the end of Dzeko's career under Spalletti. Roma certainly looked a lot more fluid when they were playing Perotti, El Shaarawy and Salah.

Bit of a shame about Dzeko as he was a great well rounded striker at Wolfsburg but there was a sharp change in attitude when he moved to City, got too bigheaded and changed his playing style to a Kane/Sturridge/Defoe type of asshole CF.

Was thinking the same thing actually when watching this. What happened to that guy who played for Wolfsburg?!

I think City are guilty of mollycoddling their players, probably a consequence of their being a noveau riche outfit who don't inspire some sort of respect in their signings. Dzeko's form dropped extremely since his move but he used to be a lot more than the shitty poacher he became in the last couple seasons, was around the same time he complained in public about his playing time and that he has loads of offers elsewhere.

Completely different act from the humble softspoken bloke at Wolfsburg, but when Yaya Touré is leading by example you expect a couple guys to follow suit.

I reckon Dzecko just got found out at a higher level. I thought he was going to be brilliant in the PL.

Insane game in Napoli, created about a hundred chances and still let Genoa create twenty chances of their own. There was one insane tackle by Koulibaly to deny Pavoletti, watched it literally five times and I still don't understand how he got there in time. Definitely wishlist material and we should nab KRC Genk's scouts, they unearthed him, Courtois, De Bruyne and Benteke just in the last few years.

Oh and another day another brace by Higuain. He's not just scoring at a ridiculous rate but is actually creating loads of chances as well. Bit kneejerk but you wonder what could've been had we gotten him instead of Özil, convinced he'd have dragged us to the title.

Nice to see Kheidera playing well again. Always liked him and its a relief his career wasn't ruined by injuries.

14 days later

Another goal from El Shaarawy today. I wonder how many points he has been worth for Roma since January. They're too far behind to threaten Juventus now, but I think they might pip Napoli to second place.

His goal for Italy the other day was superb.

In that same game, Szczesny made a howler. What a signing Spalletti is though.

Klaus wrote:

Another goal from El Shaarawy today. I wonder how many points he has been worth for Roma since January. They're too far behind to threaten Juventus now, but I think they might pip Napoli to second place.

6 goals so far.

Roma wins as a direct result of an El Shaarawy goal. So the winning goal? 1.

El Shaarawy scoring a goal in a win... 5 times. So every goal he's scored has been a game Roma have won.

8 days later

Milan right now with Mihajlovic's impending sack:

😆 

😆

Savz wrote:
Klaus wrote:

Another goal from El Shaarawy today. I wonder how many points he has been worth for Roma since January. They're too far behind to threaten Juventus now, but I think they might pip Napoli to second place.

6 goals so far.

Roma wins as a direct result of an El Shaarawy goal. So the winning goal? 1.

El Shaarawy scoring a goal in a win...  5 times. So every goal he's scored has been a game Roma have won.

Cheers, but it was a rhetorical question.

The effect a player has on a team can rarely be measured in end product alone. El Shaarawy has lifted the entire Roma team since he arrived. It's very impressive to watch.

Yeah, but is he actually any good? Or was he given the armband because he's a Maldini?

No clue. Too soon to say if he's good or bad. Has yet to play a first team match. I personally haven't seen him, just a nice fairy tale.

It says in the article that he was given the armband because his grandpa had died a few days earlier.

From what I've read he's highly rated. His younger brother, Daniel Maldini, is also supposed to be a talent.

6 days later

😆 You'd think there would have been less suspicious ways to concede if that was the case.